My overall view of Toradora! (and some thoughts)

April 11, 2009

I've been mulling over this for long enough, so it's time to actually
write something (warning, some spoilers):

Ultimately, I think Toradora! is a good series overall
but not an exceptional one. In hindsight (and after Author
spurred me into rewatching the first two episodes), I feel that it had
a strong beginning, a good but relatively ordinary middle, and ended
very strong with a powerful ending, partly because it was willing to
have its characters grow and change and partly because it is willing
to be decisive. In this it managed to be
that rarity, an anime show that gets much better in its final stretch
(I would say the last three episodes).

One of the interesting things about Toradora! is how atypical and
oddly structured it is. There are no romantic complications that show
up (Ami does not count, because everyone else is oblivious), and part
of its strong and fast start is how it decisively disposes of the
Taiga/Yuusaku issue in the second episode. In an ordinary romcom, I
would have expected at least one romantic rival and for it to take ages
before Taiga approached Yuusaku.

Another thing I noticed (due to rewatching episode 1) is the difference
between the narration that opens the first episode and the narration
that closes the last one. Based on the final line, it seems that over
the course of the show Taiga and Ryuuji have gone from thinking of
love as something that is found to thinking of it as something that is
created.

(This fits well with their overall growing up and especially their
decisions in the final episode.)